Optus plans major restructuring: report

Page Tools

Australian telecoms provider Optus is planning a major corporate
restructuring in response to slowing revenue growth and to prepare
for a $A110 million ($US79 million US) broadband network, a report
said today.

Optus, the Australian unit of Singapore Telecommunications
(SingTel), was carrying out two reviews, known as Project Symphony
and Project X, aimed at streamlining functions and reducing costs,
The Australian newspaper said.

The shake-up, the company's biggest in six years, would result
in possible staff losses in Optus' consumer businesses and would
address problems in its corporate sales group, it said.

"We are reviewing our structure and exploring whether there are
other options that will better allow us to deliver our future
strategy," Optus corporate affairs manager Melissa Favero told the
paper.

"A strategic review project team has been formed to look at
overseas experience in challenger companies and other
possibilities," he said.

Optus' current corporate structure, with different divisions for
mobile telephones, business and consumer and multimedia, was
instituted in 2000 as former owner Cable and Wireless considered
splitting Optus as part of its plan to sell the company.

This proved unnecessary after SingTel bought the whole company
for $A14 billion.

In its business division, Optus has engaged consultant McKinsey
to review its struggling operations.

The newspaper said analysts believed Optus, the second largest
telecoms operator in Australia after Telstra Corp., must turn to
its consumer and business divisions for continued growth as its
mobile business slows.